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Fraternities at Yale University have decided to delay rush as student activists push for the social organizations to be open to both men and women.
Burgwell Howard, the Associate Vice President of Student Life at the school, advised Yale’s fraternities to allow all students to attend rush events regardless of their gender,
On Monday, January 22, Matthews Kirk, a spokesman North-American Interfraternity Conference Chapter, said that the university has put off rush events after students ineligible for membership indicated they planned to attend.
via WTHN:
Yale senior associate dean Howard Burgwell urged fraternity leaders in a letter Thursday to keep rush events open to all students, regardless of gender, while being clear about their organizations’ membership criteria. He wrote that the New Haven, Connecticut, university has no interest in dictating to student organizations who they select.
A student group called Engender has been working on the Ivy League campus to end what it describes as sex discrimination by all-male fraternities.
The Yale Daily News reports that six of the eight fraternities contacted by Engender — Alpha Epsilon Pi, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Leo, Sigma Chi, Sigma Phi Epsilon and Zeta Psi — did not respond to request for comment.
Yale’s Greek Life was a source of controversy back in 2011 when fraternity pledges chanted “No means yes, yes means anal.”
